Sunday, 9 August 2009

Beautiful Losers

With a sunny day in London to kill Annie suggested we go and see 'Beautiful Losers' at the ICA or 'Year One' at the Prince Charles - I plumped for 'Beautiful Losers' with no prior knowledge of it other than that Annie had seen the original art show in San Francisco.

The documentary follows a group of artists who are drawn together through skateboarding, graffiti, punk rock and making art. The flyer tends to overstate the skateboarding element - it's not a skate film and it's all the better for it - it's a film about creative people. I knew I was in for a treat when the first name on the opening credits was Thomas Campbell an artist I've been into for a while now but the names just kept coming - Mike Mills, Barry McGee Ed Templeton and Sheperd Fairey. In fact given the people involved I'm a bit shame-faced I'd never heard of it before yesterday...

The film is insightful, touching, inspiring and very funny too - and I guess the greatest compliment I can give it is it made me desperately want to paint and make stuff.